Information collected during Internet browsing has traditionally been used to select entities for the delivery of online advertising and/or customized content. For example, a direct measurement system can collect information associated with entities such as individual Internet browser installations used to browse the Internet. When an entity requests content from a content provider over a network, such as a request from a web browser operating on a personal computer to display the content of a web page of an online publisher, the content provider can redirect the entity to submit a pixel request to the direct measurement system. Based on the pixel request, and optional subsequent actions and/or interactions, the direct measurement system can collect and/or receive information from the entity and/or information associated with the entity, such as the exact URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the accessed page. In some cases, additional information can be available, such as the URL of a referring webpage and search keywords which may have been used by the entity in an online search engine to locate the accessed page.
There is growing concern among privacy advocates regarding the collection of this type of information, such as a history of website visitation, per user.
What is needed is a way to receive and analyze information, for example a history of the webpages visited by an entity, which can be used to select entities for the purpose of marketing and/or content customization, while respecting privacy concerns related to the usage and retention of an online consumption history.